Power
Rankings After Week 4
1. Alabama 4-0 (1st)
2. Oregon 4-0 (3rd)
3. LSU 4-0 (2nd)
4. Florida State 4-0 (6th)
5. Georgia 4-0 (7th)
6. Texas 3-0 (5th)
7. South Carolina 4-0 (10th)
8. Stanford 3-0 (8th)
9. USC 3-1 (9th)
10. Florida 4-0 (11th)
11. Kansas State 4-0
(NR)
12. Oklahoma 2-1 (4th)
13. Notre Dame 4-0 (13th)
14. West Virginia 3-0
(12th)
15. Clemson 3-1 (NR)
Out:
UCLA (14th); Arizona (15th).
Comments:
This was one of those weeks when the biggest challenge was coming up with 15
teams worthy of the rankings.
Comparatively, things
were a bit calmer in my power rankings this week. In my week 3 rankings, 13 of
15 slots changed. This week, only 11 of 15 places were different from the week
before.
Also, after switching
out 5 teams the previous week, I only switched out 2 teams this week. UCLA
(#14) and Arizona (#15) dropped out of my rankings this week, with Clemson
(#15) and Kansas State (#11) returning to the top 15 after falling out of the
rankings the week before. KSU made the biggest splash, upsetting Oklahoma on
the road to climb back into my top 15 at #11.
Clemson may be the
strangest addition to the rankings this week, as they lost by double digits for
their first defeat of the season on Saturday night, yet they claimed the final
spot in my power rankings. They showed me something by putting up so many
points against FSU and giving the Noles that big of a scare on the road. And to
be honest there weren’t many other candidates. Clemson may not be a great team,
but they are certainly dangerous, and they have one of the most explosive
offenses in the country.
Alabama remains my #1
team for a fourth straight week and at this point there doesn’t appear to be a
team on their level. After spending the previous two weeks at #2, LSU fell a
spot to #3 following a much closer than expected win over Auburn.
It was a surprising
final score, but I wouldn’t make too much of LSU struggling on the road against
one of their biggest rivals. Auburn and LSU know each other as well as any two
teams in the country and that has a tendency to keep things close even when the
teams don’t appear to be evenly matched.
Oregon takes over the
#2 spot in the rankings following their absurdly one-sided victory over Arizona
at home late Saturday night. Arizona may have made some unforced errors and missed
some chances early, but by the end of the game I was convinced that it wouldn’t
have mattered if the Wildcats actually had taken advantage of those early opportunities.
Arizona was able to hang around and stay somewhat in the game for a while, but
eventually Oregon got rolling and simply vaporized the Cats.
It’s hard to beat even
a bad team 49-0, but this was a conference opponent that came into the game 3-0.
Arizona had defeated Oklahoma State by three touchdowns two weeks earlier.
Oregon topped Zona by seven TD’s on this night. The Wildcats had scored 115
points over the previous two games. They didn’t score a point against the
Ducks.
Of the 5 teams moving
up in my top 15 this week South Carolina made the biggest move, climbing 3
spots from #10 to #7.
4 teams dropped in my
rankings this week while still remaining in the top 15.
For the second week in
a row West Virginia fell 2 spots in my rankings despite having won, this time
falling from #12 to #14. Once again the reason for the fall was that they just
didn’t look like an elite team against weaker competition.
Of course the team
taking the biggest tumble in my rankings was the Oklahoma Sooners who lost at
home to Kansas State. I don’t have a lot of patience for Oklahoma this year. It
seems like just about every year Oklahoma goes into the season with as good a
chance as any team in the country of going undefeated. However, falling short
of expectations has also become an annual tradition. I moved the Sooners down 8
spots this week from #4 to #12.
Last week there was
just one team in my top 15 with a loss: USC at #9. This week there are three
teams in my power rankings with a loss: USC at #9; Oklahoma at #12; and Clemson
at #15.
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